Beforehand, I'm sorry if this is not really related to Java-Gaming but I could really need some advice from you guys, since quite a bunch of you actually earn your money with Java.

So about me, I'm 20, live in Austria and have recently finished school (polytechnic with focus on electronics). I will never ever touch electonics again... but I fell in love with programming, even though I was a bit really lazy on that part lately.

Since in school, you jump from one programming language to another and dont actually learn a single one of them, I decided to focus on teaching myself Java. It seemed rather easy to understand and since I already learned a bit of C# I figured Java would be perfect. (I also played a lot of Minecraft at that time. That might or might not have been another major factor )

The child in me made me focus on crafting my own little games. I didn't complete a single one but I mostly experimented with tile-based stuff, platformers. Besides that I wrote my diploma in Java, a (way too) simple software to analyze the stockmarket. But hey, it was my first real program and I think it turned out pretty okay. You can take a look at it HERE. It is written in german but there's a static in english, so everyone gets the basic idea of it. You can also look at the pictures and take a look at the source-code if you want to. I wouldn't advice the latter, unless you want to get eyecancer.

And here I am now, done with school and I think you could say "basic" knowledge of Java. Now I would like to get a job as a programmer/software developer but sadly I have to serve in the military first, for 6 months. Starting on January. So I thought about trying to get an internship at a company to gain some experience. But... what exactly do I want to do?

I think my options are rather limited since I live in austria. When I googled for job adverts in my region, the thing that came up the most was Java Web Development. Most of them demanted work experience of 3 years minimum.. and I haven't even touched any web-based stuff yet.

So now I'm kind of clueless for what to do... How do you guys earn your money? Should I try to get into Java Web Development? If yes how? Should I try to get an internship at a company that produces software since I already know the basics of Java?

I'm sure this thread wont benefit just me but also others who recently left school and try to earn their food with programming.

I really, really, should not be giving you advice because I just entered high school. However-You could make your own company, make a polished game, and sell it, by yourself or on Steam(you'll have to get thru that stupid greenlight thing though), or you could also try to contact any one of the game-company owners on this forum. You could also go freelance (pay for job. like a bounty hunter XD), google "freelance programmer" or something and a lot of sites will pop up.

The traditional way is through hard-work and higher education. Go for a bona-fide bachelor's degree and during that time focus on getting *good* internships at development shops that love programming. Do well in those internships and make some contacts and you'll have a pretty much guaranteed job when you graduate.

The contacts, work experience, and degree (pretty much in that order) will open a lot of doors elsewhere.

If you want to get a headstart on web development to know a bit what it's all about - I recommend http://www.codecademy.com .

You will learn the fundamentals of the web, i.e, javscript, html, css and jquery. Most jobs out there are managing websites and databases. "real" programming languages like java, C, python etc come in handy when you actually need to make something (i.e programs) and these jobs aren't easily acquired if you've got little experience.

But in any case you should remember that whatever coding job you get, you'll spend most of your time searching and learning about things to achieve whatever thing it is you want to do (This and debugging is what 90% of programming is about). So perhaps one of the most useful "know-how" you can have is an all round idea of how all the things comes together - and a good place to start is http://www.codecademy.com.

The plus side of this is that knowing and learning about how all the things come together is not only useful but also incredibly fun.

Yes, I see and understand that it would be the smartest thing to do that, but no... I can't take it anymore. I barely passed my last exams and am really happy that I'm finally finished with school. Of course I know that there's still much more hard work ahead but at least I can focus on stuff I enjoy studying.

Besides all the obvious advantages, you get to meet a lot of people how are very similar to youyou get friendships, connections to even companies and organizations, you will do projects in groups

beside the degree and the lectures there is a lot good stuff going on

and its nothing like school, you can do whatever you want, well compared to work or high schoolshow up or not, write an exam or not, do a project with whoever you wish

of course you will hate yourself forever if dont do it - people are superficial - no matter how good you get in programming and whatnot, someone with a bachelors degree will always look better to peopleeven if the actual lectures were useless

and like I said you do get experience at working on a project with a schedule, in a group - learn new technologies and all

I always see life like starting a hard RPG has a MAGE.In most games its like: you start out with very limited spells and mana, you have no defense whatsoever, its quite hard - but all the hard work will pay up later

well I actually need a bachelor also to have an international degree, since anything below that isnt really anything in other countries...

I'm a little late to the discussion it would seem but I'd still like to give it a shot.

From the looks of it, you have two options. 1. Go back to school or 2. Forego the degree and try to get a job

It sounds like you don't really want to go to school. It also sounds like you are a little nervous about option 2. What I would recommend is finding out what YOU WANT. Once you really figure out exactly what you want your life to look like you can take the steps to getting there.

If you choose option 1, the decisions are pretty simple. Go to school, get some experience through internships etc., then just get a job after you graduate.

However, if you choose option 2 you have quite a few different paths to take. You can get a job that isn't related to programming so that you have an income, and spend your free time getting good at your craft. There are a ton of jobs out there that don't require a degree and if you are truly good at what you do, there are many opportunities (jobs or business opportunities).

One exciting path would be to get a job for now and start working freelance to get the experience that will make you stand out. Once you've done quite a few jobs and are comfortable with your experience, you can easily quit the temporary job and either do freelance full time or just start your own business. Millions of people run their own business and the freedom is a big driving force.

Anyway, the main thing you should take from this is that you need to go for what you really want. Don't just get a degree because people say it's what you should do. If you really think an education will get you closer to your dreams, than great! If you can accomplish what you want through other means, than make sure you consider it.

@jdgamedev -- I liked the "Ask the Experts" talk, found it encouraging. Thanks for posting it.

One thing about college--see if there are "Independent Study" classes you can take. Basically, it usually means creating your own topic and getting a prof as a sponsor. I found time to do three at UC Berkeley when I was there. That was some of the best time I spent in school, looking back.

Well... it has been three years since I made this topic. I was so done with school when I finally finished high school, that I absolutely did not want to continue with anything of that sort.

I did pretty much nothing for half a year, and then served my military time in the other half.Apparently a break was all I needed, because I did end up deciding to give university a shot. And boy am I glad that I did..

It is absolutely nothing like high school. You are your own boss. No one cares if you don't show up to lectures. You decide yourself what is best for you.Another great thing is that you meet like-minded people. There are others near you that have a passion for programming just like yourself, who knew? You don't have to exclusively sit and work on boring homework yourself. Staring at three lines of code for an hour to figure out why it doesn't work has never been this fun! Share the pain.

Maybe the idea of university scares you because you think it might be too difficult for you. And I will not deny that it is a lot of work, quite a bit more than high school. But guess what? It is interesting work. It is exciting, fun work. Of course there will be some classes that you are not that interested in, but that is the minority. You chose this major! This is the stuff that you are passionate about! No more classes that cover the general stuff that everyone is supposed to learn. It's finally time to get down to the nitty gritty and learn the things that you actually want to learn about.

Here I am now, with four semesters on my back. I just successfully completed the hardest class of the major, Operating Systems. I had to implement locking (spinlock, mutex, condition variable,..), multi threading, forking, swapping, and other fun things into a very barebone linux-based os. Three years ago I wouldn't have even dared to dream about being able to do such things. If I can do it, you can do it!

This summer I will start working on my bachelor thesis. I'm part of the team that develops Catrobat, or more specific the android version of Pocket Code, which happens to be powered by libGDX! I actually just found out that Mario Zechner (badlogicgames) went to the same university as I do now.Funny how things turn out

TL;DR:Take a break if you need it and then continue with university. You will not regret it.

I'm curious actually, what university is it? I'm also from Austria, Vienna and went to university there. Made my BSc at the technical university (TU Wien) and my master at the Medical University Vienna. I did medical informatics

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